Seven League is delighted to announce that we will be running bespoke channels on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for the Vikings, in the UK, and in Germany, with localised content for the Minnesota Vikings for the forthcoming 2019/20 NFL season.
By using local social managers in these markets, the Vikings and Seven League will be able to provide tailor-made content for these fans, delivered in their time zone, in their language.
You can follow these channels through the links below:
Here at Seven League, we’ve preached the virtues of localised content for some time. In a 2016 blog, Digital Localisation: Go Deep, or Go Home, my colleague Charlie Beall talked about how sports organisations should embrace local markets, understand their target market in-depth, and avoid a robotic-translation approach.
In the three years since that post, some sports rights-holders have embraced the concept. But many clubs and franchises still need a plan for how to reach audiences beyond their saturated domestic market.
One team that has decided to truly localise is the Minnesota Vikings. Only two of the NFL’s 32 teams currently offer localised content which means the Vikings will be at the leading edge for growing and engaging international communities.
For Seven League, we're proud to add another major sports property to our growing list of clients, which includes the likes of FC Barcelona, Juventus, Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City, Newcastle United, Watford, Everton, Fulham, and more, alongside our work with federations, governing bodies and leagues such as FIFA, UEFA, The FA and the Premier League.
Our work with the Vikings will be yet another example of Seven League putting consulting theory into practice, acting a full-service agency to combine analysis with content experience, commercial savvy and creativity. Our wide-ranging services cover everything from content creation, optimisation and/or localisation to full social media management, including paid social, and business intelligence/analytics reporting.
Since launching the Vikings channels, we’ve already seen a fantastic response from fans, who have been delighted to see their team reach out to them, in their local language.
With the 2019/20 NFL season starting this week, we can’t wait to tell the story of the Vikings to a greater international audience.
Scott Kegley, Executive Director of Digital Media & Innovation at the Minnesota Vikings, said: “The Vikings have an amazing fan base, and many of those fans live outside the United States. Many may not ever get to attend a game or meet their favorite players, but it’s extremely important for them to feel close to the team. By opening social accounts for the UK and Germany, we view this as the first step towards building an even stronger connection with our fans overseas. We’ve worked closely with Seven League to utilize their expertise in those markets to bridge time zone and language barriers to create authentic interactions with our fans in those regions.”
Charlie Beall, Consulting Partner at Seven League, said, “The Vikings is a visionary club and their media team has an acute understanding that to develop in new markets a localised approach is required. We're humbled that they've entrusted Seven League to be the custodians of their brand messaging in Europe and hugely excited by the value we think we can help drive for the team. Skol!"